~ Award-winning, dream-protecting author

My Disappearing Act

This will be one of those personal posts I mentioned the other day, to apologize for not replying to any comments during the last few days. I’ve been away on the island of Tinos, and fully intended to answer comments etc, but every time I tried to connect to WordPress (or any other SSL site), Chrome would complain that a piece of software had come between my and my darling (blog). Chrome would than take on the role of the Knight in shining armour and slay the beast. Or, in this case, prevent me from opening the page. The posts that you’ve been reading had been scheduled before hand, as I’ve had enough mishaps during any time away from the office, to know better…

As a result of this very frustrating experience, I got to read all your great comments, but not to reply. Fret not, I now plan to remedy that, having returned yesterday. Why did I wait so long, you ask? Well, for starters the power company decided to get some work done on the grid, and left us without any power for a few hours. My PCs and server shut down due to the power failure (my UPSs only last for half an hour). And files got corrupted, which means that I spent until midnight yesterday fixing everything.

The puppy on my Kindle. I removed it before it was too late…

Things were back to normal by this morning, then, when I was rudely awakened by the desperate cries of a puppy being tortured to death by a gang of evil street cats. Or so you would think, judging by its agonizing yelps. It turned out that, during my brief absence, our neighbor had misguidedly got her daughter a one-month old puppy. Now, don’t get me wrong. As owner/slave to one dog and two cats, I’m all for saving strays. However, this was not a stray, and puppies should not be taken away from their mothers for a minimum of three months – or at least that’s been my experience.

After calling our neighbor, she asked me to look after it (luckily, she’s given us the key to her apartment) until she got home. The poor thing was scared to death, and it’s spent all morning inside a makeshift slink I placed around my waist, in order for it to cradle against me and listen to my heartbeat. It’s been sleeping for the most part, save for a couple of unfortunate accidents due its lack of any bladder control. But let’s not dwelve on those for now.

This one’s for MMJaye. Enjoy, my dear! 🙂

Anyway, after clearing (more-or-less) my 1,000-odd emails, I just wanted to say a big thank-you to all of you who have commented and shared my posts! Just because I couldn’t reply, doesn’t mean I didn’t get to appreciate them. And to share some photos from Tinos, an island famous for its medieval villages, marble quarries, Virgin Mary church and hundreds of richly decorated dove cots. Enjoy!

I don’t know where to start – what a lovely post! Loved the photos of Tinos and the cute little puppy. Poor thing, but it was lucky to wind up with you who know a thing or two about its needs right now. Give him a kiss for me, will you? And I have to agree with P.S. Bartlett. What on earth were you doing hooking up on the internet while on the island? Are you kidding? Next time, let a holiday be a holiday my friend, and leave technology behind – no one will mind as we’ll know you’ll be back rejuvenated and full of energy & clarity of mind for even more inspired and excellent posts!!!

Lol – tempting, very tempting… But I have to get my daily dose of you guys! 😀
The puppy just left my hands, and was returned to its owners not a moment ago. I did grab a photo just before I handed him over – I’ll post it shortly. 🙂